How to transfer a website to our servers

You are able to easily transfer an existing website from another hosting provider to your account with us. However, please note that the necessary steps may vary depending on the technologies and scripts that your website uses, on how large it is and on how it is organized.

In case you still have the website running on your previous host's platform, to avoid downtime, it is recommended that you copy the site on our servers and test if it works normally before pointing your domain name to our name servers.

Here are the main steps to transfer your website.

1. Before you start

Before you start the transfer, you need to make some checks and preparations.
- Make sure that you have enough disk space on your hosting account - you need to check how large your site is and if the new hosting account has enough free space left. You can check the space that you have in the Account Usage section on the left side of your Control Panel.
- Make sure that you have enough domain / subdomain slots available, enough MySQL databases and email accounts - in case you wish to move your emails as well;
- Make sure that you are able to edit the name servers of the domain(s) for the website(s) that you will be moving.

2. You need to have a copy of your site saved to your computer.

To do this, you need to log in to your account with the previous host and either download the files containing your site to your personal computer, or request them to provide you with a backup copy of your account. In case you have any difficulties, it will be best to contact your old host and request assistance.

3. Subdomains - in case your site uses subdomains as well, you need to:

- Download a copy of the files that are under each subdomain, or request such backup copies from your previous hosting company. Arrange the files in separate folders for each subdomain so that you can easily upload them to the new account after that.

- Recreate each subdomain in your new hosting account with us. You can do that through the Site Management > Subdomain Manager section of the Web Hosting Control Panel.

4. Upload your website files to our server

The easiest and fastest way to do that is via FTP.

Under each hosting account there is a default subdomain that can be used for testing purposes. It points to the same folder as your initial domain (the one you registered your account with) does. It looks like username.sc110.info. Please note that if you wish to test your website before you point your domain name to our servers, you need to upload it to the directory of the default subdomain.

5. In case your website also uses a database, please refer to this article: "How can I transfer my MySQL database from another host to you?"

6. Set up your e-mail accounts

If you have e-mail accounts that you wish to transfer over to the new account, you need to recreate them as well.

7. Test your website before you point your domain to our servers

When the transfer of the files (and eventually, the database) is completed, you should be able to open your website from the new location in your account with us.
You can test if everything is working correctly before you point your domain name to our servers, so that you can avoid downtime. To do that, you just need to open the default subdomain under which you have uploaded the files of your website. If everything is working correctly, you should to be able to see your website and open all the menus and links in it normally. It is recommended that you test all the functions, links and menus associated with your website, and check if all the pages are displayed normally.

8. Point your domain name to our name servers

Once you are sure that everything is working correctly, you can point your domain name to our name servers.